Beacon detection method and apparatus for sharing spectrum between wireless communications systems and fixed microwave systems

ABSTRACT

A system for spectrum sharing between a point-to-point microwave system and a TDM/TDMA wireless communications system in a common geographical area is described. Each transmitter/receiver in the point-to-point microwave system transmits, in addition to its normal information signal, a beacon signal which is uniquely associated with the receiver receive frequency. In selecting uplink and downlink frequencies for port assignment, each port monitors the beacon frequencies and selects as uplink and downlink frequencies, frequencies which associated beacons fall below a predetermined threshold. Similarly, before accessing the wireless communications system through a selected port, a portable monitors the beacons associated with the selected port&#39;s uplink frequency. If the beacon associated with the uplink frequency exceeds a threshold, the portable selects an alternate port through which to access the network. Also, during a call an emergency link transfer to another port is made if the monitored beacon corresponding to the portable&#39;s uplink frequency rises above the threshold.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application describes and claims subject matter that is alsodescribed in our co-pending United States patent application alsoassigned to the present assignee hereof and filed simultaneouslyherewith: "BEACON DETECTION SYSTEM FOR SHARING SPECTRUM BETWEEN WIRELESSCOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS AND FIXED MICROWAVE SYSTEMS", Ser. No.08/142,533.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a technique for spectrum sharing betweenprivate point-to-point microwave systems and wireless communicationssystems such as a TDM/TDMA system used for low power portable digitaltelephony.

People by their very nature are highly mobile; no where is this moretrue than in modem day society with its myriad forms of travel. At thesame time, many people increasingly have a need to be able totelephonically communicate with others particularly while they are on"the go", i.e. while they are moving.

However, this need for mobile communications, which existed for quitesome time, has remained basically unsatisfied. Since telephonestraditionally have cords, any movement of the telephone wastraditionally limited by the length of its cord. For many years, only averitable handful of telephones actually traveled with their users.These mobile telephones included aeronautical, marine and other forms ofearly radio telephones. Inasmuch as these mobile telephones were pricedwell beyond the affordability of the average telephone subscriber, noneof these radio telephones ever encountered widespread use. Accordingly,for the vast majority of subscribers, a telephone set was installed ateach subscriber location and there it remained unless it was reinstalledelsewhere. Thus, these subscribers either remained close to theirtelephone and thus restricted their mobility particularly in theanticipation of receiving a telephone call, or intentionally sought outa public or private telephone located along their route of travelwhenever the need arose to place a telephone call.

Now with increasing sophistication of miniaturized electronic technologyand decreasing attendant cost thereof, various vendors provide a numberof devices (and/or services) that offer tetherless telephony. Thesedevices, explained in more detail below, attempt to free a subscriberfrom being bound by the ambulatory constraints imposed by existingwireline telephone sets. In effect, each of these devices now permitssubscribers effectively, at least to a certain extent, to take theirtelephone with them, obtain exchange access, and remain in communicationwherever they go. These devices include cordless telephones, cellularmobile radio transceivers, public packet radio data network transceiversand radio pagers. As a growing number of consumers perceived the freedomof movement offered by these devices, a large demand was created forthese devices. Moreover and not unexpectedly, as the prices of thesedevices continue to fall due to manufacturing economies and technicaldevelopments, the demand for these devices correspondingly continues tosubstantially increase. Specifically, more than 25 million cordlesstelephone sets are in use today throughout the United States with demandfor these sets continuing to rise as the price of cordless telephoneswith increasing sophisticated has remained within a $100.00 to $200.00range. In addition, more than three million cellular telephone sets arecurrently in use throughout the United States. As the price of variouscellular sets falls from more than a $1000.00 which occurred merely ayear ago to only a few hundred dollars today, the demand for these setshas increased precipitously. As a result, the number of installed setshas climbed at such an astonishing rate that in certain urban areas,such as New York, the number of sets in use at peak times is beginningto strain the capacity of the existing cellular network to handle theconcomitant call traffic.

While, each of the present tetherless telephonic technologies possessescertain advantages, each technology also unfortunately has certaindrawbacks that significantly restrict its use. In this regard, see,e.g., Cox, "Portable Digital Radio Communications--An Approach toTetherless Access", IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 27. No. 7, July1989 pages 30-40; and Cox, "Universal Digital Portable RadioCommunications", Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 75, No. 4, April 1987,pages 436-476.

Specifically, as to cordless telephones, such a telephone consists oftwo transceivers: a base unit and a handset, that collectively form alow power duplex analog radio link. The base unit is connected,typically by a subscriber to a wireline access point in a conventionaltelephone network in lieu of or as a replacement for a wirelinetelephone, in order to implement a tetherless substitute for a telephonecord. Once connected, the base unit appears to the telephone network asa conventional telephone. The base unit contains a transmitter and areceiver, and simple control and interface apparatus for dialing,accepting ringing, terminating calls and coupling voice from thetelephone line to the transmitter and from the receiver within the baseunit to the telephone line. The handset, which is truly portable,contains simple control logic for initiating, receiving and terminatingcalls with the base unit and for turning its own transmitter on and off.To provide true duplex operation, separate carrier frequencies are usedby the transmitters in the base unit and handset. Since cordlesstelephones operate with very low input power to their transmitter,usually on the order of only several milliwatts, the handset generallyutilizes several small rechargeable batteries as its power source. Thisenables the handset to be made relatively small, lightweight and to becontinuously used for a relatively long period, typically several hours,before its batteries require recharging. Furthermore, the very low levelof power radiated from the handset poses essentially no biologicalradiation hazard to its user.

Unfortunately, the primary disadvantage of cordless telephones is theirhighly limited service area. Because cordless telephones use relativelylow transmitter power, these telephones have a maximum range that variesfrom typically a few hundred to a thousand feet, which in turn resultsin a very small service area. A secondary disadvantage associated withcordless telephones stems from the limited number of availablefrequencies. At present, only a few separate frequencies, typically upto 10 duplex channels, have been allocated by the Federal CommunicationsCommission (FCC) for use by cordless telephones. Moreover, earlycordless telephones by their very design have been very susceptible toco-channel interference. This interference arises by the simultaneousoperation of two or more cordless telephones situated in close proximityto each other, such as in an immediate neighborhood of a residentialarea. In a very small geographic area with a very low density of users,a reasonable probability exists that within this area one or more duplexpairs will not be in use at any one time, and, as such, thisinterference will not occur therein. Nevertheless, in an effort to avoidthis interference, relatively sophisticated cordless telephones are nowcapable of operating on any one of a number of preprogrammed duplexpairs with either the user or the telephone itself selecting, manuallyin the case of the user and automatically by the telephone, the specificpair that is to be used at any one time. Unfortunately, if a sufficientnumber of cordless telephones are in use in a very densely populatedarea, such as an apartment building, pair selection may not besufficient to eliminate the expected incidences of co-channelinterference that results from undisciplined and uncoordinated duplexpair assignment and the resulting chaos experienced by users situatedtherein. In addition, since cordless telephones rely on analogmodulation of a duplex pair, conversations occurring over a cordlesstelephone are highly vulnerable to eavesdropping. Furthermore, acordless telephone only provides limited protection against unauthorizedlong distance or message units calls being made there through. Whilepreprogrammed digital or tone access codes are being used betweenindividual handset-base unit pairs and provide sufficient protectionagainst casual attempts at unauthorized access, these codes are notsufficiently sophisticated to successfully deter a determined orderlyassault on a cordless telephone by an unauthorized user. Furthermore,while cordless telephones provide limited portable radio access to awireline access point, from a network standpoint cordless telephones donot eliminate the need for telephone lines, i.e. a customer drop, to berun to each subscriber.

Nonetheless, in spite of these severe service restrictions, cordlesstelephones are immensely popular for the freedom, though very limited,that they furnish to their users.

In contrast to the very limited range provided by cordless telephones,cellular mobile radio systems accommodate wide ranging vehicularsubscribers that move at relatively high speeds. These systems utilize arelatively high power 850 MHz transmitter, typically operating at aninput of approximately 0.5 watt to several tens of watts, in a mobileunit with a relatively high efficiency antenna to access a wirelinetelephone network through a fixed cell-site (base station). The basestation also uses a high power transmitter in conjunction with a tallantenna, typically erected on a tower or tall building, to provide arelatively large coverage area. Due to the expense, typically ranging to$300,000 exclusive of land and building costs, and the antenna sizeassociated with each base station, the least number of base stations areoften used to cover a given area. Nonetheless, this arrangementgenerally provides a circular service area centered on a base stationwith a radius of approximately 5-10 miles therefrom. In use, a cellularradio system that covers a large region often encompassing a city, itssuburbs and major access highways typically includes a number ofgeographically dispersed base stations. The base stations, containingradio receivers and transmitters and interface and control electronics,are connected by trunks to and coordinated and controlled by one or moreMobile Telephone Switching Offices (MTSOs) that, in turn, also provideaccess to the conventional wireline telephone network. All of the duplexradio channels available to the entire system are sub-divided into setsof channels. The radio equipment in each base station has the capabilityof using channels from one of the channel sets. These sets are allocatedto the base station in a pattern that maximizes the distance betweenbase stations that use the same sets so as to minimize averageco-channel interference occurring throughout a service region. One ormore channels are designated for initial coordination with the mobilesets during call setup.

Each mobile (or hand-held) cellular transceiver used in the systemcontains a receiver and a transmitter capable of operating on any duplexradio channel available to the cellular system. Calls can be made to orfrom any mobile set anywhere within the large region covered by a groupof base stations. The control electronics in the mobile transceivercoordinates with a base station on a special call setup channel,identifies itself, and thereafter tunes to a channel designated by thebase station for use during a particular call. Each duplex channel usesone frequency for transmission from base-to-mobile and a differentfrequency for transmission from mobile-to-base. The signal strength ofcalls in progress is monitored by the base stations that can serve thosecalls. Specifically, when the signal strength for a given call dropsbelow a predetermined threshold, typically due to movement of thecellular subscriber from one cell to another, the MTSO connected to thatbase station coordinates additional signal strength measurements fromother base stations which surround the station that is currentlyhandling the call. The MTSO then attempts to switch ("handoff") the callto another duplex channel if one of the other base stations is receivinga stronger signal than that being received at the base station that iscurrently handling the call. This handoff of calls, totally transparentto the cellular subscriber, preserves the quality of the radio circuitas the subscriber moves throughout the service region. Moreover, callsare handed off from one MTSO to another, as the subscriber transits fromone service area into another. Inasmuch as frequency usage iscoordinated, relatively efficient use is made of the available frequencyspectrum while minimizing the likelihood co-channel interference. Ineach different geographic service area within the United States, thereare two competing cellular systems using different frequencies.

Though cellular mobile radio systems provide wide range, these systemssuffer various drawbacks. First, cellular systems were originallydesigned for use in motor vehicles whose electrical systems couldreadily provide sufficient power. While portable hand-held cellulartransceivers do exist, they must operate with sufficient transmitterinput power, typically at least 0.5 watt, to reliably reach a basestation. This, in turn, requires that a relatively large battery must beused within the portable cellular transceiver. However, due to thelimits of present rechargeable battery technology, the amount of timethat the portable transceiver can be used before it requires rechargingis often quite limited. Furthermore, the cost of these rechargeablebatteries and hence of the portable transceiver is rather high.Moreover, high radiated power levels, such as that which emanate from amobile or portable cellular transceiver, may be sufficient to pose apotential biological radiation hazard to its user. Furthermore, sincecellular systems were not designed to compensate for radio attenuationoccurring within buildings, these systems are only able to providelittle, if any, service within a building. Low power portable cellulartransceivers are not operationally compatible with large cell sizes,designed to match the needs of fast moving vehicular users, and thusoften provide poor communication in many areas within these cells. Inaddition, since cellular systems rely on merely frequency modulating acarrier with voice or data, these systems are also susceptible toeavesdropping. Lastly, from a network perspective, cellular systems arequite inefficient. Due to the inclusion of MTSOs with trunks connectedto individual base stations, backhaul of cellular traffic over wiredtrunks often occurs over several miles prior to its entrance into thewireline network, thereby resulting in a wasteful overbuild of networktransport facilities.

Public packet radio data networks presently exist to handle infrequentbursts of digital data between a fixed base station and a number ofportable data transceivers. The fixed site has a transmitter that usesseveral tens of watts; while each portable data transceiver uses atransmitter that operates at a level of several watts. As such, reliablecoverage is provided over a service area that may extend several milesin radius from a base station. Individual base stations are connected bya fixed distribution facility to a controller that can, in turn, beconnected to either a local exchange network, to handle voice-band data,or a packet-data network which itself interconnects various computers.Multiple users contend for transmission time on typically a single radiochannel. Data transmissions on the channel are set up in eitherdirection through bursts of coordinating data, handshaking, that occurbetween a base station and a portable data transceiver. Appropriatecontroller and radio link protocols are used to avoid packet collisions.Once a data transfer is complete between that base station and a datatransceiver, the channel is immediately available for reuse by others.Although data bursts are transmitted at relatively high power, eachburst is transmitted for only a short duration. As such, the averagepower consumption for a portable data transceiver is far less than thatassociated with a portable cellular transceiver thereby allowingphysically smaller internal batteries to be used with portable datatransceivers than those used in portable cellular transceivers.Nevertheless, the high radiated power levels associated with a portabledata transceiver again pose a potential biological radiation hazard toits user. In addition, these networks disadvantageously suffer fromlimited digital transmission capacity which restricts these networks tocarrying short data bursts and not voice, and, like cellular systems,experience coverage restraints when used within buildings.

In contrast to the tetherless systems discussed above, radio pagingsystems provide simple unidirectional transmission from a fixed locationto a specifically addressed portable pager, which when received providesan alerting tone and/or a simple text message. Paging systems provideoptimized one-way communication over a large region through a high powertransmitter, typically a few kilowatts, that uses high antennas atmultiple sites to provide reliable coverage throughout the region.Satellite based paging systems are also in operation to provide extendedservice regions. Since a pager is merely a receiver with a smallannunciator, its power requirement is very low. As such, a pager isquite small, light weight, reliable, relatively low cost, and canoperate for long intervals before its batteries need to be recharged orreplaced.

Due to the advantages in size, cost and operating duration offered bypocket pagers, attempts exist in the art, to impart limited two-waycommunication into paging systems which are themselves highly optimizedfor one-way traffic. One such attempt includes incorporation of an"answer back" message through "reverse" transmission links between theindividual pagers and the fixed sites. While these attempts have metwith great difficulty, these attempts nevertheless indicate that asubstantial demand exists for an inexpensive two-way portable trulytetherless telephonic service that overcomes the range limitationsassociated with cordless telephones and the weight and cost limitationsassociated with portable cellular systems.

Furthermore, various intelligent network services are now being offeredby the local telephone operating companies in an attempt to providewireline subscribers with a certain degree of call mobility when theyare away from their own wireline telephones. These services include calltransfer and call forwarding. Both call transfer and call forwardingallow a subscriber to program a local switch, using any pushbuttontelephone, to transfer all subsequently occurring incoming calls thatwould otherwise be routed to this subscriber's telephone to a telephoneassociated with a different wireline telephone number that thesubscriber desires anywhere in the world either for a given period oftime, as in call transfer, or until that subscriber appropriatelyreprograms the switch with a different forwarding number, as in callforwarding. In this manner, the subscriber can, to a certain extent,continually instruct the telephone network to follow his or hermovements and thereby route his or her incoming calls to a differentnumber in unison with that subscriber's actual route of travel.Unfortunately, with these services, the subscriber must manuallyinteract with the network and continually enter a new forwardingtelephone number(s) coincident with his or her continuing travel suchthat the network is always cognizant of the current telephone number towhich his calls are to be forwarded.

Thus, a substantial overall need exists in the art for a truly portablepersonal communication technology that is designed for pedestrian useand which utilizes small, lightweight and relatively inexpensiveportable transceivers while eliminating, or at least substantiallyreducing, the performance drawbacks associated with the use of currentlyexisting tetherless telephonic technologies in portable communicationapplications.

In an attempt to provide this needed technology, the art has turned tolow power portable digital telephony. In essence, this technology,similar to cellular radio, uses a fixed base unit (hereinafter referredto as a port) and a number of mobile transceivers (hereinafter referredto as portables) that can simultaneously access that port on amultiplexed basis. However, in contrast to cellular radio, portabledigital telephony, or wireless communications, uses low powermultiplexed radio links that operate on a time division multiplexed/timedivision multiple access (TDM/TDMA) basis to provide a number ofseparate fully duplex demand-assigned digital channels between a portand each of its associated portables. Specifically, each port wouldtransmit time division multiplexed (TDM) bit streams on a predefinedcarrier frequency, with, in turn, each portable that accesses that portresponding by transmitting a TDMA burst on a common though differentpredefined carrier frequency from that used by the port. Quadraturephase shift keying (QPSK), with an inter-carrier spacing of 150 to 300KHz and within a given operating frequency band situated somewherebetween approximately 0.5 to 5 GHz would be used by both the port andportables. The power used by the transmitter in the portable would rangebetween 5-10 milliwatts or less on average and provide a range ofseveral hundred to a thousand feet. As such, the resulting low radiatedpower would pose essentially no biological radiation hazard to any user.In addition, the port antenna would be relatively small and suitable formounting on a utility or light pole. With this transmission range, aport could simultaneously serve typically 20-30 separate locallysituated portables. The same TDM channels would be reused at ports thatare spaced sufficiently far apart to reduce co-channel interference toan acceptably low level but yet conserve valuable spectrum. To provideaccess to the wireline telephone network, each port would be interfaced,typically through a conventional fixed distribution facility, overeither a copper or fiber connection to a switching machine at a localcentral office. The switching machine would be suitably programmed, in asimilar manner as is an MTSO, to controllably and automatically handoffcalls from one port to another as subscribers move their portables fromport to port.

Due to the very limited transmitter power, each portable is anticipatedto be very light-weight, physically small and provide a relatively longoperating life between battery recharging or replacement. The cost to asubscriber for a portable is expected, through very large scaleintegrated (VLSI) circuit implementations, to reside in the range of$100.00 to $350.00. In addition, each port would require a relativelysmall electronic package and carry an overall expected cost of less than$25,000.00--which is far less, by at least an order of magnitude, thanthat of a current cellular base station. Moreover, the digital datacarried on each channel could be readily encrypted to provide a desireddegree of security and privacy against eavesdropping. Furthermore, withthis technology, a port antenna, due to its small size, could be readilymoved within a building to cope with signal attenuation occurringtherein. Port spacings would be properly established within the buildingand frequency reuse would be properly controlled between these ports toprovide portable service having an acceptably low level of co-channelinterference to a high density of users situated therein.

From a network perspective, low power portable digital telephony isextremely attractive. At present, approximately $50-100 billion isinvested by local operating telephone companies in costs associated withcopper subscriber loops that run from distribution points to localtelephone company demarcation points on individual customer drops. For alocal telephone company, the per-subscriber cost of installing andmaintaining a subscriber loop is generally greater at the loop endclosest to a subscriber than at the far end thereof since the loop endis more dedicated to that subscriber than the far end is. Given therange provided by portable low power telephony, ports can beappropriately positioned throughout an area to provide radio link basedexchange access and thereby substitute inexpensive mass produced VLSIcircuitry for costly dedicated copper loops that would otherwise emanatefrom a distribution facility to an individual subscriber. Hence, byinstalling various ports throughout for example a building, significantlabor intensive installation and maintenance tasks associated withrewiring of telephone drops and relocation of telephone equipment wouldbe eliminated with substantial savings being advantageously realized inattendant subscriber costs as people are moved from office to officetherein.

Now, with the attractiveness of low power portable digital telephonybeing readily apparent, its success, in great measure, hinges onachieving satisfactory performance through the use of TDMA. Variousaspects of TDMA have been treated in prior art patents and patentapplications such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,991, entitled "Method andCircuitry for Determining Symbol Timing for Time Division MultipleAccess Radio Systems," issued Jul. 18, 1989 to H. W. Arnold and N. R.Sollenberger, two of the co-inventors herein; U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,841,entitled "Method and Circuitry for Carrier Recovery for Time DivisionMultiple Access Radio Systems," issued Jun. 26, 1990 to J. C. Chuang andN. R. Sollenberger; U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,155, entitled "Method andCircuitry for Symbol Timing and Frequency Offset Estimation in TimeDivision Multiple Access Radio Systems," issued Jul. 10, 1990 also to J.C. Chuang and N. R. Sollenberger; U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,891, entitled "ATechnique for Jointly Performing Bit Synchronization and Error Detectionin a TDM/TDMA System," issued Jan. 28, 1992 to S. Ariyavisitakul, L. F.Chang and N. R. Sollenberger; U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,742, entitled "TimeDispersion Equalizer Receiver with a Time-Reversal Structure for TDMAPortable Radio Systems", issued Oct. 13, 1992 to S. Ariyavisitakul andH. W. Arnold; U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,769, entitled "Digital Circuits forGenerating Signal Sequences for Linear TDMA Systems", issued Jan. 5,1993 to H. W. Arnold and N. R. Sollenberger; U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,831,entitled "Method and Apparatus for Autonomous Adaptive FrequencyAssignment in TDMA Portable Radio Systems", issued May 18, 1993 to J. C.Chuang and N. R. Sollenberger; U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,101 entitled "PhaseEqualizer for TDMA Portable Radio Systems", issued Jun. 22, 1993 to S.Ariyavisitakul and H. W. Arnold; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,045 entitled"Method and Apparatus for Autonomous Selective Routing During RadioAccess in TDMA Portable Radio Systems", issued Jul. 6, 1993 to J. C.Chuang. Co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10,111 filed Jan. 28,1993 by S. Ariyavisitakul, J. C. Chuang, and N. R. Sollenberger,discloses a method and apparatus for dynamic power control in TDMAportable radio system; and co-pending patent applications Ser. Nos.100,515 and 100,020 both filed Jul. 30, 1993 by J. C Chuang and N. R.Sollenberger, each disclose a method and apparatus for synchronizingtiming among the ports in a TDMA portable radio system.

Inasmuch as there is a shortage of free frequency spectrum available forthe introduction of new communications services, an FCC proposal is thatthe low power digital telephony wireless communications systems sharespectrum within the 2 GHz frequency band currently being used by fixedpoint-to-point microwave systems. These microwave system are used byutility companies, railroads, police, medical, and public safetyorganizations for information transmission.

In order for two communications services to share a common frequencyspectrum, an arrangement is necessary to prevent interference betweenthe two system. Spectrum sharing techniques can be broadly classifiedinto spectrum avoidance techniques and spectrum overlay techniques. Inspectrum avoidance techniques, mutual interference between a fixedpoint-to-point microwave system and a wireless communications system isavoided by electromagnetically isolating the two services. Two ways ofachieving such isolation are predicting potential interference based onpropagation characteristics and measurement-based techniques.

In the former, interference from one system to the other is predictedand geographical areas are defined in which use of both thepoint-to-point system and the wireless communications system areexcluded. For example, if a microwave tower is transmitting at frequencyf₁ and receiving at f₂, for a defined area, generally within a circularregion surrounding that tower, the wireless communications system willnot be permitted to transmit on frequency f₂ because it will interferewith the microwave system. The problem, however, with such an avoidancetechnique is that exclusion areas are not readily defined because actualpass loss is difficult to predict since they depend on a number ofparameters. Conservative calculations must therefore be used leading toan inefficient sharing of spectrum.

The second approach is a measurement based technique in which ports andportables monitor the presence of energy from fixed transmitters beforeselecting frequencies for their own use. Thus, using the example above,the microwave transmitter energy at f₁ is monitored, and if it is abovea certain threshold, the port and portables avoid transmitting on thefrequency that corresponds to the microwave receiver frequencyassociated with the transmitter frequency f₁, that frequency being f₂.In order to support a high density of wireless communications users,however, point-to-point transmitter energy must be detected at levelsfar below the thermal noise floor of the wireless communications system.In order for ports and portables to make such sensitive measurements,the complexity of the wireless communications system would need to besubstantially increased. This is exacerbated by the lack of easy methodsto carry out measurements of sufficient sensitivity. Independentstations could be deployed to detect energy from point-to-pointtransmitters in order to avoid adding complexity to the ports andportables. Efficient sharing of spectrum, however, requires that fulladvantage be taken of the variability of the path loss between thewireless communications system and the point-to-point microwave radioscaused by shadowing. This can only be done by monitoring the energy fromthe point-to-point transmitters at the site of the ports' and portables'operation. Therefore, for the most efficient sharing of spectrum, portsand portables need to monitor power and dynamically avoid point-to-pointlinks.

An object of the present invention is to avoid the problems of theabove-described prediction-based and measurement-based spectrumavoidance techniques for spectrum sharing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the present invention, the ports and portables do not monitor thepoint-to-point microwave system transmitter energy at the transmitterfrequency to determine whether they are likely to cause interferencewith that tower's receiver. Rather, in accordance with the presentinvention, a marker beacon transmitter is mounted on the microwaveantenna to transmit a continuous wave (CW) signal through everypoint-to-point receiver antenna system. Each beacon protects itscorresponding receiver by identifying the frequency of thepoint-to-point receiver with a one-to-one correspondence betweenreceiver frequencies and beacon frequencies. Thus, if a port or aportable can detect energy above a set threshold at a particular beaconfrequency, transmission by the port or portable at the receiverfrequency that corresponds to that beacon frequency is avoided. Unlikethe aforedescribed measurement-based spectrum avoidance technique inwhich the ports and portables measure the energy at the transmitterfrequency and which require high sensitivity at the ports and portables,the beacon-based system requires much lower sensitivity since the energyof the beacons can be concentrated in a narrow bandwidth unlike thepoint-to-point transmitter frequencies, which are spread over a muchwider bandwidth. The ports and portables can therefore incorporate anarrow-band filter to capture the beacon energy thereby lowering thenoise in the band and resulting in a sensitivity improvement. Withimproved sensitivity the beacons can be detected more readily than thepoint-to-point transmitter frequencies, and the ports and portables canbe made substantially less complex.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 shows a wireless communications system using radio ports toprovide tetherless communications;

FIG. 2 shows a geographical area in which a wireless communicationssystem and a point-to-point microwave system co-exist and use the sameportion of the frequency spectrum for communications;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a point-to-point microwave tower site;

FIGS. 4-8 show various arrangements for placing the beacon frequencieswithin the common frequency band used for point-to-point microwave andwireless communications;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of the steps performed by a port in the channelassignment process to avoid interference with the point-to-pointmicrowave system;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of the steps performed by a portable inaccessing the wireless communications system that avoid interferencewith the point-to-point microwave system; and

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the receiver apparatus in a port or aportable that performs the steps of FIGS. 9 and 10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An overall diagram of a low power portable wireless communicationsTDM/TDMA digital telephony system 5 is shown in FIG. 1. Low powerdigital portable telephony utilizes a fixed base unit (referred to as a"port") and a number of mobile transceivers (each of which is referredto as a "portable"). Through use of time division multiple access(TDMA), each portable can access the port through a separatedemand-assigned, TDMA channel to carry duplex communication on a timedivision multiplexed (TDM) basis there between. The power used by thetransmitter in each portable would range between 5-10 milliwatts or lesson average and provide a range of several hundred to a thousand feetbetween a port and each of its portables. To accommodate a relativelylarge service area, several ports are used with individual calls beingsuccessively handed off from port to port as their corresponding callerscarry their portables from the service area associated with one port tothat of an adjacent port. An appropriate switch (not shown) which islocated within a local central end office is suitably programmed tooperate in a similar manner as does a mobile telephone switching officein order to controllably handoff calls from port to port as the callerstransit corresponding local service areas associated therewith.

Specifically, system 5 contains four ports 30, 40, 50 and 70 andrespective portables 34 and 36; 42, 44, 46 and 48; 52, 54, 56 and 58;and 72, 74 and 76. The ports themselves are connected to the switchlocated within central office 10 to provide access to a wirelinetelephone network. This connection can typically occur in one of twoways: either through copper digital lines 16 and 18 for illustrativelyports 70 and 50, respectively, or via intermediary copper digital lines23 and 27 to remote electronics 20 and 25 for illustratively ports 30and 40, respectively. The remote electronics contain fixed distributionand concentration facilities for multiplexing traffic, in addition tothat provided by ports 30 and 40, onto fiber feeders 12 and 14 which, inturn, feed central office 10. The switch located within the centraloffice is connected, through trunk 7, to the wireline telephone network.

Each port would transmit time division multiplexed (TDM) bit streams ona predefined carrier frequency using quadrature phase shift keying(QPSK) modulation, with an inter-carder spacing of 150 to 300 KHz andwithin a given operating frequency band situated somewhere betweenapproximately 0.5 to 5 GHz. With this transmission range, a port couldsimultaneously serve as many as typically 20 separate locally situatedportables that each carries digitized speech at a bit rate of 16kbits/second. Here, ports 30, 40, 50 and 70 respectively serve portables34 and 36; 42, 44, 46 and 48; 52, 54, 56 and 58; and 72, 74 and 76. Thesame TDM channels would be reused at different ports that are spacedsufficiently far apart, such as ports 30 and 70, to reduce co-channelinterference to an acceptably low level but yet conserve valuablespectrum. However, adjacent ports would be situated sufficiently closetogether in order to provide an appropriate degree of overlap of theirrespective service areas thereby ensuring no loss of coverage occursduring call handoff. Furthermore, each port utilizes a suitable antenna,such as antenna 31 for port 30, to carry its TDM transmissions to itsassociated portables and receive TDMA bursts therefrom. Given thecarrier frequencies being used, each of these antennas is relativelysmall and suitable for mounting on a utility or light pole or within anoffice building.

Inasmuch as system 5 replaces local copper drops and telephone cordswith short range low power radio links, ambulatory callers are providedwith completely tetherless access. Accordingly, through radio links 33and 38, illustrative callers 35 and 37 located within respectiveresidences 63 and 67 are completely free to move within the entireservice area provided by system 5, i.e. that provided by ports 30,40,50and 70, while advantageously maintaining continuity of their existingtelephone conversations as well as being able to place calls throughother ("non-home") ports as their travel progresses.

Each port continuously transmits on a TDM basis, while portablestransmit in bursts on a TDMA basis to their associated port. Twodifferent carrier frequencies are used to carry communication betweeneach port and a portable: one frequency, frequency f1 for port 30, tocarry communication from that port to each of its portables (downlinktransmission) and another frequency, frequency f₂ for port 30, to carrycommunication from each of these portables to this port (uplinktransmission). Although adjacent ports use different pairs offrequencies, one particular uplink frequency being associated with eachdownlink frequency, these carrier frequencies are also reused for portsthat are spaced sufficiently far apart from each other to conservespectrum. By employing the procedure of the aforenoted U.S. Pat. No.5,212,831 issued May 18, 1993, which is incorporated herein byreference, the downlink frequencies of all ports (and thus that port'sassociated uplink frequency) are assigned so as to maintain anacceptable low level of co-channel interference at each port.

As one of the portable users desires to connect to the telephonenetwork, that person's portable must select a channel and initiate anaccess protocol. Selecting a channel (i.e. a port to communicate with)requires determination of the "best" port having a vacant time slot. A"best" port is one determined by the portable to have the highest signalto impairment (SIR) ratio or other quality measure. Generally, this islikely to be that port which is closest to the portable. Thus in FIG. 1,portable 74 would most likely access port 70. Various topological andmeteorological conditions, however, can affect the quality oftransmission so that the nearest port may not be the "best" port for aportable to access. Therefore, in FIG. 1, the "best" port for portable74 may not be the nearest port 70, but may rather be port 40 or port 50.The "best" port may also not be available. Although the system shown inFIG. 1 shows only a limited number of portable units associated witheach port, in actual practice, however, many more portables may becommunicating through a port in a particularly high traffic area therebyoccupying all the vacant time slots on the channel. The "best" port withrespect to signal quality may not, therefore, be the "best" availableport. The aforenoted U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,045 issued Jul. 6, 1993discloses a method and apparatus for selecting a "best" available port.

FIG. 2 illustrates the scenario in which ports and portables sharefrequency spectrum with a point-to-point microwave system. Antenna 201is a point-to-point microwave tower which transmits at a frequencyf_(T1) to microwave antenna tower 202 and receives from microwave tower202 at a corresponding frequency f_(R1). The transmitting frequency oftower 202, f_(T2), is thus equal to f_(R1) and the receiving frequencyof tower 202, f_(R2), is equal to f_(T1). The low power wirelesscommunications digital telephony system comprises a plurality of fixedports, shown illustratively as ports 203-217. In an actual system therelikely would be additional port locations and more than one pair ofpoint-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers from the same pair oftowers or on other towers. The portable units in the system wouldcommunicate onto the network through the port providing the "best"signal quality, which in most cases would be the nearest port. Shownsurrounding each port is an circular region which defines an area withinwhich portables are likely to select the central port as the "best" portto communicate with. Thus, for example, the portable units 211-2, 211-3,211-4 and 211-5, within the region defined by 211-1 would likelycommunicate port 211.

In order to share spectrum with the point-to-point microwave system,shown in FIG. 2 as comprising microwave towers 201 and 202, whichreceive at at f_(R1) and f_(R2), respectively, a port or a portablecannot transmit at those frequencies if a transmission from a port orportable will interfere with the reception of a microwave transmissionat those frequencies. In order to protect each microwave antenna towerfrom potential interference, each microwave antenna transmits acontinuous-wave marker beacon signal to protect its correspondingreceiver. Thus, in FIG. 2, tower 201 transmits a beacon signal at afrequency f_(B1) to protect its receiver at frequency f_(R1). Similarly,tower 202 transmits a beacon signal at a frequency f_(B2) to protect itsreceiver at frequency f_(R2) (equal to f_(T1)). In assigning frequenciesto the ports during its channel assignment process (see, e.g.,aforenoted U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,831), a port, prior to selecting aparticular downlink frequency (such as f_(R1)), monitors the beacon thatcorresponds to that downlink frequency (f_(B1)) to determine whether thestrength of the beacon is above a predetermined threshold level. If itis above the threshold, then a downlink transmission by the port mayinterfere with the reception of the point-to-point microwave signal atf_(R1) at tower 201 and the port must select a downlink frequency otherthan f_(R1). Similarly, if a greater than threshold detected beaconcorresponds to a port's prospective uplink frequency, then portablestransmitting to that port on that uplink frequency may interfere withpoint-to-point receptions at that frequency and the port must select analternate downlink/uplink pair. In FIG. 2, ports 205, 206, and 208 areshown being within an exclusion area 220 surrounding tower 201, and arethus each precluded from being assigned frequency f_(R1) for uplink ordownlink transmission. It should also be noted that a separate exclusionarea surrounds tower 202. This exclusion area, which is not shown inFIG. 2 to avoid confusing the figure, defines a general area in whichuse of frequency f_(R2) would be precluded by ports or portables. Such adetermination at a port or a portable would be based on the detection ofbeacon f_(B2) above or below a threshold.

In accessing a port for entry onto the wireless communications system, aportable must also monitor the beacon frequency associated with aselected port's uplink frequency. As noted above, during the channelassignment process a port may be assigned an uplink/downlink frequencypair in which the uplink frequency is the same frequency as used by thepoint-to-point system if the beacon signal protecting thatpoint-to-point system's receiver frequency is measured by the port to bebelow a threshold level. A port may be shadowed from a givenpoint-to-point receiver and thus outside that point-to-point receiver'sexclusion area. One or more portables communicating on the uplinkchannel with that port may, however, be in locations that could causeinterference to the point-to-point receiver. For example, in FIG. 2,port 209 is outside the exclusion area of tower 201. Portable 209-2,however, falls within the exclusion area and must therefore access aport other than 209 if port 209 has an uplink frequency equal to thereceiving frequency of tower 201, f_(R1). In accessing a port,therefore, a portable first selects a port based on a signal qualitycriteria, which would under most conditions be the nearest port. Beforesetting up the link, however, it monitors the beacon corresponding tothe selected port's uplink frequency. If the portable detects thecorresponding beacon at a level above a predetermined threshold, then itselects an alternate port to access the network. Similarly, as aportable moves around its service area it must periodically monitor thesignal strength of the beacon corresponding to its uplink frequency. Ifthe beacon exceeds the threshold, the portable performs an emergencylink transfer to an alternate channel.

With reference to FIG. 3, a schematic diagram of a point-to-pointmicrowave tower site is shown as modified to accommodate the beacondetection scheme of the present invention. The microwave antenna 301 isphysically connected atop a tower 302. A microwave transmitter 303,transmitting signals at a frequency f_(T1), is connected to a frequencycombiner 304, which combines the output of transmitter 303 with theoutput of a beacon transmitter 305. Beacon transmitter 305 produces abeacon signal at a frequency f_(B1). The combined output signals ofcombiner 304 are transmitted by antenna 301 at frequencies f_(T1) andf_(B1) while the signal transmitted by an antenna at the opposite end ofthe the point-to-point microwave system is received at a frequencyf_(R1). This received signal is passed through frequency combiner 304 tomicrowave receiver 306.

As previously described, the beacon transmitted by antenna 301 atfrequency f_(B1) protects the receiver frequency, f_(R1), of theantenna, which is uniquely identified by that beacon frequency. In otherwords, a port which detects this beacon signal above a threshold levelcannot select frequency f_(R1) as its uplink or downlink frequency sincea transmission to or from the port may interfere with the reception ofthe point-to-point signal received at the antenna at the same frequency.Similarly, as described, a portable cannot access a port whose uplinkfrequency is f_(R1) if the portable detects this beacon at f_(B1) abovea threshold since an uplink transmission by the portable at f_(R1) maylikewise interfere with the point-to-point reception by the antenna atthe same frequency.

Although FIG. 2 shows a single pair of point-to-point microwave towers201 and 202 transmitting and receiving there between at frequenciesf_(T1) and f_(R1) in the TDM/TDMA low-power digital telephony servicearea, in an actual telephony service area a plurality of privatepoint-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers will operate in the1850-1990 MHz band governed by FCC Rule Part 94, which provides forchannel bandwidth of 5 or 10 MHz. This band consists of one subband from1850-1910 MHz for transmission is one direction and a second subbandfrom 1930-1990 MHz for duplex transmission in the opposite direction.Each point-to-point transmission frequency, f_(TN), in one subband, thushas a corresponding receive frequency, f_(RN), in the opposite subband.Each point-to-point receiver antenna system requires its own beacontransmitter mounted to transmit a continuous wave (CW) signal atdistinct beacon frequencies. Each beacon, thereby, protects itscorresponding receiver by uniquely identifying the frequency of thepoint-to-point receiver with a one-to-one relationship. As will bedescribed, the beacons are situated at one end of or within one band toprotect receiver frequencies in the opposite band. This is done tomaximize the separation between beacons and receiver frequencies,thereby minimizing self-interference at a receiver by the beacon signalthat protects that receiver's frequency.

The CW beacons are separated by 25 KHz in a Frequency Division Multiplexformat transmitting at approximately 1 W. The channelization plan shows22 center frequencies for two-way transmissions and two frequencies forone-way transmission. Therefore, 22 distinct beacons suffice to createthe one-to-one relationship with the two-way point-to-point microwavereceiver frequencies. It can be assumed that the 1850-1910 MHz subbandis used for uplink portable digital telephony and the 1930-1990 MHzsubband is used downlink. Assuming two beacon bands (to protect eachhalf of the duplex pair of the point-to-point allocation), Table 1 showsthe one-to-one relationship between beacon frequencies and thepoint-to-point receiver frequencies. In this table it it assumed thatthe beacon band protecting the point-to-point receivers in the 1850-1910channels starts at X MHz and the beacon band protection point-to-pointreceivers in the 1930-1990 channels starts at Y MHz. Overall,approximately a 500 KHz bandwidth is needed for placing 22 beaconfrequencies.

                  TABLE 1                                                         ______________________________________                                        Point-to-point       Point-to-point                                           receiver Beacon      receiver   Beacon                                        frequency                                                                              Frequency   frequency  frequency                                     in MHz   in MHz      in MHz     in MHz                                        ______________________________________                                        1855     X           1935       Y                                             1860     X + 0.025   1940       Y + 0.025                                     1865     X + 0.050   1945       Y + 0.050                                     1870     X + 0.075   1950       Y + 0.075                                     1875     X + 0.100   1955       Y + 0.100                                     1880     X + 0.125   1960       Y + 0.125                                     1885     X + 0.150   1965       Y + 0.150                                     1890     X + 0.175   1970       Y + 0.175                                     1895     X + 0.200   1975       Y + 0.200                                     1900     X + 0.225   1980       Y + 0.225                                     1905     X + 0.250   1985       Y + 0.250                                     ______________________________________                                    

There are several alternatives for placing the beacon bands, each havingit advantages and disadvantages. Possible beacon band placementcombinations are discussed hereinbelow.

FIG. 4 shows a beacon band arrangement that places the beacons bandsoutside the private point-to-point bands. As noted, the beacons in theband just above the 1930-1990 MHz downlink band protect thepoint-to-point receivers in the 1850-1910 MHz band while the beacons inthe band just below the 1850-1910 MHz uplink band protect thepoint-to-point receivers in the 1930-1990 MHz band. Advantageously, thebeacons bands are placed sufficiently away to minimize the adjacentchannel interference into receivers which could be operating in thevicinity, and in principle, this arrangement produces the least leakageof beacon energy into the point-to-point receivers. Furthermore, thereis no loss of spectrum within the private point-to-point band. Microwaveantenna feeds should be capable of handling this slightly higherbandwidth. Also, if the point-to-point band is split into wirelesscommunications system subbands, each of which is allocated to adifferent provider, the beacons will not interfere with these subbands.Disadvantageously, band allocation as per FIG. 4 requires that theGovernment band below and the Broadcast band above the point-to-pointmicrowave band lose approximately 1 MHz each, which may not be feasible.The beacons bands are also furthest away from the receivers they protectand hence any effects of frequency selective fading will be felt most inthis configuration. Wireless communications system port and portablereceivers also have to tune over a slightly wider bandwidth to receivethe beacons. In addition, the port receiver filters need to encompassthe entire band to check both uplink and downlink for beacon signalenergy.

FIG. 5 shows a beacon band arrangement in which the beacons are in thelower and upper band edges of the microwave band. The advantages are asdescribed in connection with the arrangement in FIG. 4, except that nobands outside the point-to-point bands are needed. The disadvantage isthat, in practice, a 10 MHz wide slot (i.e., a 10 MHz point-to-pointchannel) must be cleared for each beacon band. Furthermore, since theseare two-way radio channels, their corresponding frequency in the otherdirection (at 1935 MHz and 1905 MHz) must also be vacated.

The arrangement in FIG. 6 reduces the microwave channels must be clearedto one two-way pair. However, the beacons near 1930 MHz are closer tothe receivers they are protecting (i.e., the lower band) than thebeacons near 1850 MHz. This is not necessarily a problem since microwavefront end filters are usually designed to reduce the adjacent channel,which is only 10 MHz away.

In the arrangement of FIG. 7, the beacons are placed in the middle ofthe microwave band pairs. One 10 MHz channel pair is cleared for the 1MHz wide beacon bands. Four 10 MHz bands are still available. Thewireless communications system receiver and transmitter filters can besymmetrical in design and the wireless communications system portfilters can be less wide, to check both uplink and downlink beacons.

In the arrangement of FIG. 8, the beacons are placed in the center ofthe whole point-to-point band. It has been proposed, however, that thisin-between band be allocated for use as an unlicensed band. Thus,placement of the beacons in this in-between band complicates the designof unlicensed band services. The beacons would, however, be reasonablyfar apart from the microwave bands they protect. The wirelesscommunications system receiver filter designs are, however, complicatedunless they chose to accept the interference from the unlicensed band inthe middle into the front-ends, rejecting them elsewhere in theirreceivers.

Other arrangements could be described for placing the beacon bands forimplementing the beacon-protected microwave spectrum sharing scheme forwireless communications systems of the present invention. The choice asto where the beacon bands should be placed must be a balance betweenwireless communications system receiver filter complexity, adjacentchannel interference to microwave systems, the need to clear a microwaveband in some of the schemes, and the political ramifications of these.

Each beacon's signal energy is concentrated in a 25 KHz bandwidth andbeacon signals are detected by a port or a portable receiver using afilter that has a 25 KHz bandwidth. Therefore, the effective radiatedpower as far as the receiver is concerned is 30 dBm (if 1 W beacons areassumed). The thermal noise floor at 25 KHz bandwidth is -126 dBm(assuming 4 dB noise figure). If antenna gains are assumed to be 0 dbiand if signals can be detected at the thermal noise floor, beacon energycan be detected up to a path loss of 156 dB. Compared to monitoringpoint-to-point transmitted energy spread over 10 MHz, which can bedetected up to a 130 dB path loss, detection of beacon energy results inabout a 26 dB advantage. In terms of the density of users that can besupported outside the exclusion area on this point-to-point frequency,this translates into a factor of 20. Therefore, frequency sharing basedon detection of beacons allows supporting a user density over an orderof magnitude more than what can be supported otherwise.

The steps performed by a port during its channel assignment process areillustrated in flow chart format in FIG. 9. These steps could beincorporated into the method of autonomous adaptive frequency assignmentdescribed in the aforenoted U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,831. Specifically, whena port selects a frequency as a potential downlink frequency based on areceived power indicator at that frequency (step 204 in noted patent),it then determines whether that frequency is acceptable from a beacondetection standpoint using the present invention. Thus, at step 901 ofthe present invention, the port selects a frequency for its downlinktransmission based on a signal quality criteria. In the noted patent,this is the frequency at which the lowest power is measured. Otheralternative criteria, however, could also be used. At step 902 the portmonitors the beacon that corresponds to that selected frequency. Atdecision step 903 the port decides whether the received beacon power isabove or below a predetermined threshold. If the beacon power is abovethis threshold, then a port downlink transmission at the correspondingfrequency would be "seen" by the point-to-point microwave receiveroperating that frequency and thus cause interference. The port cannot,therefore, select that frequency for downlink transmission. If othersuitable frequencies are available (decision step 904) the port selectsa next suitable frequency (step 905) and monitors the beaconcorresponding to that frequency (step 902). If no other suitablefrequencies are available, then the port cannot be assigned a downlinkfrequency at that time and the process fails (step 906). When the beaconpower corresponding to a potential downlink frequency is measured to bebelow the threshold (decision step 903), the port monitors the beaconcorresponding to the uplink frequency associated with that downlinkfrequency (step 907). If that measured beacon is above a threshold(decision step 908) then uplink signals from the portables to the portwould be "seen" by a microwave point-to-point receiver operating at thatfrequency and could interfere with signals received on thepoint-to-point system at that frequency. An alternative downlink-uplinkfrequency pair must then be selected. If that measured beaconcorresponding the associated uplink frequency is below the threshold,then the port assigns the selected frequency for its downlinktransmission (step 909) and the frequency assignment is complete (step910). By using this method, therefore, each port is assigned a frequencyfor downlink transmission that does not interfere with any proximatepoint-to-point microwave systems receiving on that same frequency.Furthermore, uplink transmissions by portables are also not likely tointerfere with a microwave system receiving at the uplink frequency. Inorder, however, to insure that uplink signals do not cause interference,each portable performs the steps outlined in the flowchart of FIG. 10before accessing the wireless communications system.

With reference to FIG. 10, in step 1001, in order to access the network,a portable selects a port based on a signal quality criteria. In step1002 the portable monitors the beacon signal that corresponds to thatselected port's uplink frequency. If that beacon's detected power isabove a threshold level, which is measured in decision step 1003, theportable must select another port to access the system since uplinktransmissions by the portable may potentially interfere with thepoint-to-point receiver being protected by that beacon. In that case, indecision step 1004, the portable searches for another port through whichto access the system. If another port is not available, then access tothe system is denied and the call fails (step 1005). If a port isavailable, then the port with the next best signal quality is chosen(step 1006). If the beacon signal power that corresponds to that port'suplink frequency is below the threshold level, the link is step up (step1007). During the progress of the call, routine channel measurements aremade (step 1008) and the beacon signal power corresponding to the uplinkfrequency is monitored (step 1009). Since the user may roam through theservice area of a port during the progress of the call, he may suddenlyfall within the exclusion area of a microwave point-to-point receiverthat is operating at a receive frequency that is the same as his uplinkfrequency. The user's uplink transmissions may, therefore, interferewith the point-to-point signals being received by that receiver.Accordingly, if during the call the beacon it detected above a thresholdlevel (decision step 1010), an emergency link transfer to another portis effected (step 1011).

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the receiver apparatus located in allthe ports or portables in the wireless communications network thatperforms the methods of FIGS. 9 or 10, respectively. For ease ofexplanation, it will be assumed that FIG. 11 represents such apparatusat the receiver of a port in the system. The radio signals 1101 receivedby antenna 1110 include the uplink signals from all the portscommunicating with the port and the beacon signals transmitted by eachmicrowave transmitter to protect each associated microwave receiver.After a possible uplink-downlink frequency pair is selected for the portusing, for example, the method and apparatus described in aforenotedU.S. Pat. No. 5,212,831, the apparatus of FIG. 11 determines whetherdownlink transmissions by the port to portables or uplink transmissionsby portable to the port will cause interference at any receiver in themicrowave point-to-point system that is operating at either the selecteduplink or downlink frequency. In order to determine whethertransmissions at an uplink or downlink frequency will interfere with areceiver in the point-to-point microwave system, the existing portreceiver 1102 is tuned by synthesizer 1103, which is controlled bycontroller 1104, to the beacon frequency that protects the correspondingpoint-to-point receiver operating at the downlink frequency. Thereceived beacon signal is passed through a narrowband filter circuit1105. For the numerical examples given hereinabove, filter circuit 1105has an approximately 25 KHz bandwidth. The power of the filtered beaconsignal is then measured by power circuit 1106 and comparator 1107compares that power with a predetermined threshold level 1107. If thebeacon signal is below the threshold level, then that port's downlinksignals will not interfere with a point-to-point receiver receiving atthe same frequency and is an acceptable frequency assignment. If thatdownlink frequency is an acceptable frequency from that interferencestandpoint, controller 104 tunes synthesizer 103 to the beacon frequencyprotecting the receiver receiving at the uplink frequency correspondingwith that acceptable downlink frequency. Power circuit 1106 thenmeasures the power at that beacon frequency and comparator 1107 comparesthe measured power with a threshold to determine whether uplink signalsat that frequency are likely to interfere with point-to-point receiversoperating at the same frequency. When an acceptable downlink/uplinkfrequency pair is determined, controller 104 sets synthesizer 103 soreceiver 102 receives at the assigned uplink frequency and the porttransmitter (not shown) transmits at the assigned corresponding downlinkfrequency.

Although not separately shown, each portable unit contains circuitrysimilar to the port circuitry shown in FIG. 11 in order to perform thesteps of FIG. 10. Specifically, the portable circuitry measures beaconsignals both when accessing a port at the initiation of a call andduring the progress of a call to insure that the portable's uplinksignal does not interfere with any point-to-point receiver operating atthe same frequency.

The above-described embodiment is illustrative of the principles of thepresent invention. Other embodiments could be devised by those skilledin the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. In a geographical area commonly comprising: aplurality of point-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers transmittingand receiving information signals at fixed frequencies within apredetermined spectrum to associated transmitter/receivers, eachtransmitter/receiver also transmitting a beacon within saidpredetermined spectrum that is uniquely identified in frequency with itsassociated transmitter/receiver receive frequency; and afrequency-reusing radio communications system having a plurality offixed base units and a plurality of mobile transceivers, each fixed baseunit having a transmitter for transmitting at an assigned downlinkfrequency within said predetermined spectrum to at least one mobiletransceiver and a receiver for receiving at an associated uplinkfrequency within said predetermined spectrum from at least one mobiletransceiver and for receiving signals transmitted by other sourceswithin said predetermined spectrum, each mobile transceiver having atransmitter for transmitting signals at any one of a plurality of uplinkfrequencies to any one of said plurality of fixed base units and areceiver for receiving signals at any one of a plurality of associateddownlink frequencies from any one of said plurality of fixed base unitsand for receiving signals transmitted by other sources within saidpredetermined spectrum, wherein at least some of the point-to-pointmicrowave transmitter/receivers transmit and receive at at least some ofthe same frequencies used as downlink and uplink frequencies of thefrequency-reusing radio communications system, a method of assigningfrequencies to at least one fixed base unit in the frequency-reusingradio communications system to prevent a transmission from said at leastone fixed base unit or from a mobile transceiver communicating with saidat least one fixed base unit from interfering with the informationsignals received at any point-to-point receiver in the commongeographical area, comprising the steps of:(a) at said at least onefixed base unit, selecting a frequency for downlink transmission basedon a signal quality criteria; (b) monitoring at said at least one baseunit a received beacon corresponding to the frequency selected fordownlink transmission; (c) determining whether the received beacon isabove or below a predetermined threshold; (d) if the received beacon isabove the predetermined threshold, selecting another frequency fordownlink transmission by said at least one base unit that is acceptablefrom a signal quality standpoint and repeating steps (b) and (c) for theselected another downlink frequency; (e) if the received beacon is belowthe predetermined threshold, monitoring at said at least one fixed baseunit a second received beacon that corresponds to the uplink frequencyassociated with the downlink frequency selected in step (a) or theanother downlink frequency selected in step (d); (f) determining whetherthe second received beacon corresponding to the uplink frequency isabove or below the predetermined threshold; (g) if the second receivedbeacon corresponding to the uplink frequency is above the predeterminedthreshold, selecting another frequency for downlink transmission by thefirst base unit that is acceptable from a signal quality standpoint andrepeating steps (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) for this selected anotherdownlink frequency; and (h) if the second received beacon correspondingto the uplink frequency is below the predetermined threshold, assigningand setting the downlink frequency of the at least one fixed base unitto the selected frequency which corresponding beacon is below thepredetermined threshold.
 2. A method in accordance with claim 1 furthercomprising the step of repeating steps (a) through (h) at each of theplurality of base units in the frequency-reusing radio communicationssystem.
 3. In a geographical area commonly comprising: a plurality ofpoint-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers transmitting andreceiving information signals at fixed frequencies within apredetermined spectrum to associated transmitter/receivers, eachtransmitter/receiver also transmitting a beacon within saidpredetermined spectrum that is uniquely identified in frequency with itsassociated transmitter/receiver receive frequency; and afrequency-reusing radio communications system having a plurality offixed base units and a plurality of mobile transceivers, each fixed baseunit having a transmitter for transmitting at an assigned downlinkfrequency within said predetermined spectrum to at least one mobiletransceiver and a receiver for receiving at an associated uplinkfrequency within said predetermined spectrum from at least one mobiletransceiver and for receiving signals transmitted by other sourceswithin said predetermined spectrum, each mobile transceiver having atransmitter for transmitting signals at any one of a plurality of uplinkfrequencies to any one of said plurality of fixed base units and areceiver for receiving signals at any one of a plurality of associateddownlink frequencies from any one of said plurality of fixed base unitsand for receiving signals transmitted by other sources within saidpredetermined spectrum, wherein at least some of the point-to-pointmicrowave transmitter/receivers transmit and receive at at least some ofthe same frequencies used as downlink and uplink frequencies of thefrequency-reusing radio communications system, a method by a mobiletransceiver of selecting a fixed base unit through which to access thefrequency-resuing radio communications system to prevent a transmissionfrom the mobile transceiver from interfering with the informationsignals received at any point-to-point receiver in the common geographicarea, comprising the steps of:(a) at the mobile transceiver selecting afixed base unit through which to access the frequency-reusing radiocommunications system based on a signal quality criteria; (b) monitoringat the mobile transceiver a received beacon corresponding to the uplinkfrequency of the selected fixed base unit; (c) determining whether thereceived beacon is above or below a predetermined threshold; (d) if thereceived beacon is above the predetermined threshold, selecting anotherfixed base unit for the mobile transceiver to access thefrequency-reusing radio communications system that is acceptable from asignal quality standpoint, and repeating steps (b) and (c) for theselected another fixed base unit; and (e) if the beacon is below thepredetermined threshold, setting up a communications link between themobile transceiver and the selected fixed base unit.
 4. A method inaccordance with claim 3 further comprising the steps of:(f) after thecommunications link is set up between the mobile transceiver and theselected fixed base unit, periodically monitoring at the mobiletransceiver the beacon corresponding to the uplink frequency of theselected fixed base unit; (g) determining whether the beacon is above orbelow the predetermined threshold; (h) if the beacon is below thepredetermined threshold, maintaining the communications link between themobile transceiver and the selected fixed base unit; and (i) if thebeacon is above the predetermined threshold, performing an emergencylink transfer and selecting another fixed base unit through which toaccess the frequency-reusing radio communications system based on asignal quality criteria and repeating steps (b) through (e) for thenewly selected another fixed base unit.
 5. In a geographical areacommonly comprising: a plurality of point-to-point microwavetransmitter/receivers transmitting and receiving information signals atfixed frequencies within a predetermined spectrum to associatedtransmitter/receivers, each transmitter/receiver also transmitting abeacon within said predetermined spectrum that is uniquely identified infrequency with its associated transmitter/receiver receive frequency;and a TDM/TMDA wireless communications system having a plurality offixed ports and a plurality of mobile portable units, each port having atransmitter for transmitting at an assigned downlink frequency withinsaid predetermined spectrum to at least one portable unit and a receiverfor receiving at an associated uplink frequency within saidpredetermined spectrum from at least one portable unit and for receivingsignals transmitted by other sources within said predetermined spectrum,each portable unit having a transmitter for transmitting signals at anyone of a plurality of uplink frequencies to any one of said plurality ofports and a receiver for receiving signals at any one of a plurality ofassociated downlink frequencies from any one of said plurality of portsand for receiving signals transmitted by other sources within saidpredetermined spectrum, wherein at least some of the point-to-pointmicrowave transmitter/receivers transmit and receive at at least some ofthe same frequencies used as downlink and uplink frequencies of theTDM/TDMA wireless communications system, a method of assigningfrequencies to at least one port in the TDM/TDMA wireless communicationssystem to prevent a transmission from the said at least one port or froma portable unit communicating with said at least one port frominterfering with the information signals received at any point-to-pointreceiver in the common geographical area, comprising the steps of:(a) atsaid at least one port, selecting a frequency for downlink transmissionbased on a signal quality criteria; (b) monitoring at said at least oneport the received beacon corresponding to the frequency selected fordownlink transmission; (c) determining whether the received beacon isabove or below a predetermined threshold; (d) if the beacon is above thepredetermined threshold, selecting another frequency for downlinktransmission by said at least one port that is acceptable from a signalquality standpoint and repeating steps (b) and (c) for the selectedanother downlink frequency; (e) if the beacon is below the predeterminedthreshold, monitoring at said at least one port a received second beaconthat corresponds to the uplink frequency associated with the downlinkfrequency selected in step (a) or the another downlink frequencyselected in step (d); transmission; (f) determining whether the receivedsecond beacon corresponding to the uplink frequency is above or belowthe predetermined threshold; (g) if the second beacon corresponding tothe uplink frequency is above the predetermined threshold, selectinganother frequency for downlink transmission by the first port that isacceptable from a signal quality standpoint and repeating steps (b),(c), (d), (e) and (f) for this selected another downlink frequency; and(h) if the second beacon corresponding to the uplink frequency is belowthe predetermined threshold, assigning and setting the downlinkfrequency of the at least one port to the selected frequency whichcorresponding beacon is below the predetermined threshold.
 6. A methodin accordance with claim 5 further comprising the step of repeatingsteps (a) through (h) at each of the plurality of ports in the TDM/TDMAwireless communications system.
 7. In a geographical area commonlycomprising: a plurality of point-to-point microwavetransmitter/receivers transmitting and receiving information signals atfixed frequencies within a predetermined spectrum to associatedtransmitter/receivers, each transmitter/receiver also transmitting abeacon within said predetermined spectrum that is uniquely identified infrequency with its associated transmitter/receiver receive frequency;and a TDM/TDMA wireless communications system having a plurality offixed ports and a plurality of mobile portable units, each port having atransmitter for transmitting at an assigned downlink frequency withinsaid predetermined spectrum to at least one portable unit and a receiverfor receiving at an associated uplink frequency within saidpredetermined spectrum from at least one portable unit and for receivingsignals transmitted by other sources within said predetermined spectrum,each mobile portable unit having a transmitter for transmitting signalsat any one of a plurality of uplink frequencies to any one of saidplurality of ports and a receiver for receiving signals at any one of aplurality of associated downlink frequencies from any one of saidplurality of ports and for receiving signals transmitted by othersources within said predetermined spectrum, wherein at least some of thepoint-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers transmit and receive atat least some of the same frequencies used as downlink and uplinkfrequencies of the TDM/TDMA wireless communications system, a method bya portable of selecting a port unit through which to access the TDM/TDMAwireless communications system to prevent a transmission from theportable unit from interfering with the information signals received atany point-to-point receiver in the common geographical area, comprisingthe steps of:(a) at the portable unit selecting a port through which toaccess the TDM/TDMA wireless communications system based on a signalquality criteria; (b) monitoring at the portable unit a received beaconcorresponding to the uplink frequency of the selected port; (c)determining whether the received beacon is above or below apredetermined threshold; (d) if the beacon is above the predeterminedthreshold, selecting another port for the portable unit to access theTDM/TDMA wireless communications system that is acceptable from a signalquality standpoint, and repeating steps (b) and (c) for the selectedanother port; and (e) if the beacon is below the predeterminedthreshold, setting up a communications link between the portable unitand the selected port.
 8. A method in accordance with claim 7 furthercomprising the steps of:(f) after the communications link is set upbetween the portable unit and the selected port, periodically monitoringat the portable unit the beacon corresponding to the uplink frequency ofthe selected port; (g) determining whether the beacon is above or belowthe predetermined threshold; (h) if the beacon is below thepredetermined threshold, maintaining the communications link between theportable unit and the selected port; (i) if the beacon is above thepredetermined threshold, performing an emergency link transfer andselecting another port through which to access the TDM/TDMA wirelesscommunications system based on a signal quality criteria, and repeatingsteps (b) through (e) for the newly selected another port.
 9. In aTDM/TDMA wireless communications system having a plurality of fixedports and a plurality of mobile portable units, each port having atransmitter for transmitting at an assigned downlink frequency within apredetermined spectrum to at least one portable unit and a receiver forreceiving at an associated uplink frequency within said predeterminedspectrum from at least one portable unit and for receiving signalstransmitted by other sources within said predetermined spectrum, eachportable unit having a transmitter for transmitting signals at any oneof a plurality of uplink frequencies to any one of said plurality ofports and a receiver for receiving signals at any one of a plurality ofassociated downlink frequencies from any one of said plurality of portsand for receiving signals transmitted by other sources within saidpredetermined spectrum, the ports and portables in the TDM/TDMA wirelesscommunications system be located in the same geographical area with apoint-to-point microwave transmission system having a plurality ofpoint-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers transmitting andreceiving information signals at fixed frequencies within the samepredetermined spectrum and at at least some of the same frequencies assaid uplink and downlink frequencies, each transmitter/receiver alsotransmitting a beacon within said predetermined spectrum that isuniquely identified in frequency with its associatedtransmitter/receiver receive frequency, each one of the ports furthercomprising means for setting the downlink and associated uplinkfrequencies, said means for setting comprising means for determiningwhether a transmission by a port at a selected downlink frequency or bya portable at its associated selected uplink frequency will causeinterference with signals received by a transmitter/receiver in thepoint-to-point microwave system, said means for determiningcomprising:means for tuning the receiver in the port to receive thebeacon signals corresponding to selected downlink and uplinkfrequencies; means for measuring the power of the received beaconscorresponding to the selected downlink and uplink frequencies; comparingmeans for comparing the power of the received beacons with apredetermined threshold; and means for selecting an alternative downlinkand associated uplink frequency if the power of the either of thebeacons corresponding to a selected downlink or associated uplinkfrequency are greater than said predetermined threshold.
 10. A port inaccordance with claim 9 further comprising filtering means fornarrowband filtering the received beacon signals.
 11. In a TDM/TDMAwireless communications system having a plurality of fixed ports and aplurality of mobile portable units, each port having a transmitter fortransmitting at an assigned downlink frequency within a predeterminedspectrum to at least one portable unit and a receiver for receiving atan associated uplink frequency within said predetermined spectrum fromat least one portable unit and for receiving signals transmitted byother sources within said predetermined spectrum, each portable unithaving a transmitter for transmitting signals at any one of a pluralityof uplink frequencies to any one of said plurality of ports and areceiver for receiving signals at any one of a plurality of associateddownlink frequencies from any one of said plurality of ports and forreceiving signals transmitted by other sources within said predeterminedspectrum, the ports and portables in the TDM/TDMA wirelesscommunications system be located in the same geographical area with apoint-to-point microwave transmission system having a plurality ofpoint-to-point microwave transmitter/receivers transmitting andreceiving information signals at fixed frequencies within the samepredetermined spectrum and at at least some of the same frequencies assaid uplink and downlink frequencies, each transmitter/receiver alsotransmitting a beacon within said predetermined spectrum that isuniquely identified in frequency with its associatedtransmitter/receiver receive frequency, each one of the portablesfurther comprising accessing means for selecting a port with which toaccess the network based on a signal quality measure; said means foraccessing comprising means for determining whether a transmission by aportable on an uplink frequency of a selected port will causeinterference with signals received by a transmitter/receiver in thepoint-to-point microwave system, said means for determiningcomprising:means for tuning the receiver in the portable to receive thebeacon signal corresponding to the uplink frequency of tile selectedport; means for measuring the power of the received beacon correspondingto the uplink frequency of the selected port; comparing means forcomparing the power of the received beacon with a predeterminedthreshold; and means for selecting an alternative port with which toaccess the network if the power of the the received beacon correspondingto the uplink frequency of the selected port is greater than saidpredetermined threshold.
 12. A portable in accordance with claim 11wherein said means for tuning periodically monitors the beacon signalcorresponding to the uplink frequency of the selected port during accessto the port by the portable, and said means for selecting selects analternative port with which to access the network if during a monitoringperiod the power of the received beacon corresponding to the uplinkfrequency of the selected port is greater than said predeterminedthreshold.
 13. A portable in accordance with claim 11 further comprisingfiltering means for narrowband filtering the received beacon signals.